Engine preheater



July 24, 1951 J. R. GARDNER ET AL ENGINE PREHEATER 4 Sheets-Sheet lFiled June 25, 1949 llncllllllllnllllld;

lnmiml W July 24, 1951 J. R. GARDNER ET AL ENGINE PREHEATER Filed June25, 1949 E1E E ATTRNEY July 24 1951 J. R. GARDNER ETAL 2,561,467

ENGINE PREHEATER Filed June 25, l949 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 ELE E ATTORNEY J.R. GARDNER I'AL ENGINE FREI-HEATERA July 24, 1951 2,561,461

Filed June 25, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ELE.. E-

INVENTURS. U55 R Gar-mar Patent'cd July 24, 1951 ENGINE PREHEATER JohnR. Gardner, North Pekin, and Ernest W. Landen and Frank Middleton,lPeoria, Ill., and Carl H. Paul, Altadena, `Calif., mignon toCaterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria, Ill., a corporation of CaliforniaApplication .fune z5, 1949, seria No. 101,366

8 Claims.

This invention 'relates to enginel preheaters ol'v the type employed forwarming an engine prior to starting and is particularly adapted foruse.,

on engines which have beenexposed to' extremely cold temperatures suchasare commonly encountered in the Arctic regions.

Theinvention described herein may be manufacture'd and used by or forthe Government for governmental purposes without the payment of anyroyalty thereon.

One of the principal problems of engines which have been exposed toextremely cold temperatures for extended periods of time is that ofstarting. At extremely low temperatures, the lubricating oil becomes soviscous that it is impractical to use conventional starting devices tocrank the engines. In addition, the ignition of the engine fuel becomesmore difllcult as the temperature decreases. As a result. it has beenthe practice in the past to either provide heated storage facilities forengines operated in such temperatures or to leave the engines runningcontinuously, only shutting them down for necessary repairs andservicing. For general utility of engine powered vehicles operating insuch areas, it is impractical always to provide heated storagefacilities and as prolonged operation at idling speeds causes rapidengine wear it is highly desirable to provide some means of starting theengines quickly as well as to obtain satisfactory operating temperatureswithin the en- Sine.

It is, therefore, an object of thel present invention to provide meansfor heating and conditioning an engine which has been exposed toextremely cold temperatures to facilitate starting. Itis another objectof this invention to provide an engine preheater which may be mounteddirectly thereon and transported with the engine at all times. It is`another object of this invention to provide a heater for aninternal-combustion engine of unusually simple and rugged design withall manually adjustable parts designed for convenient handling bypersonnel wearing heavy protective mittens.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be made apparent inthe following specification wherein reference is made to theaccompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of an engine which is provided with apreheating mechanism incorporating the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of a blower and fuel controlmechanism formingpart of the (Cl. 12B-142.5)

preheater with parts broken away 'to more.

.clearly illustrate the invention;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view along the line III-III of Fig. 4;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in side elevation with parts broken away tomore clearly illustrate the invention; and Y Fig. 5 is a view in endelevation of the engine illustrating the manner in which the engine isshrouded with parts broken away to more clearly illustrate the interiorbailling and the direction of flow of the hot air.

Figs. 1' and 5 illustrate a typical application of the present inventionto a spark ignition engine indicated generally at I0, employed forcranking a compression ignition engine of a well known type comprising acylinder block Il, intake manifold I2, exhaust manifold Il and afly-wheel (not shown) but which is disposed within a bell housing Il.Although the invention is illustrated in its Vassociation with thestarting engine i0, it will be readily apparent that it is equallyapplicable to the main Diesel engine or to other types of engines notprovided with a separate starting engine. The starting engine Il isrigidly secured to a mounting pad II formed on the Diesel enginecylinder block and is provided with a suitable driving pinion (notshown) but enclosed with a housing I8 to provide a driving connection tothe Diesel engine fly-wheel. Suitable control linkage lndi catedgenerally at I 9 is provided for selective engagement of the drivingconnection.

taken Preheatlng of the spark ignition engine Il to l facilitatestarting is accomplished by circulating heated air about the crankcase,cylinder block, cylinder head, intake and exhaust manifolds indicated bythe reference characters 22, 2l, 2l, 2l, and 2t respectively. Theseparts are enclosed within a shroud 21 communicating by wayof a duct Ilwith a blower housing 29. As is illustrated in Fig. 2, the blowerhousing contains a blower fan Il adapted to be rotated by means of ahand crank J2 through gears indicated at Il. The air from the blower isheated by the combustion of fuel sprayed through a nozzle 14 into aburner tube 35 disposed within the air duct and which is provided withperforations It to permit intermixing of the air and fuel.

The fuel for heating the air may be the same vas that used for operatingthe starting.V engine and is contained within a tank illustrated at Ilin l. A pipe Il, which is provided4 with a Il filter 3l. therein,provides communication bethe blower housing. The pump 48 is adapted tobe driven by the gears 88 also driving the blower fan for supplying fuelunder pressure through a pipe 4i to a selector valve indicated generallyat 42 in Fig. 2. The selector valve serves to direct fuel either to thefuel nozzle 84 or through a pipe 48 to an igniter 44 carried in the airduct 28. The igniter is adapted. to contain a measured quantity of fueland is provided with a wick portion 45 extending into the burner tube.Openings 46 and 41 provided in the burner tube and air ductrespectively, permit lighting ofthe wick which will continue to burnuntil all of the fuel in the igniterv is exhausted. The lighted wickserves to ignite the fuel from the nozzle which after ignition willcontinue to burn until the fuel supply is shut of! by the selectorvalve.

The opening 41 in the. air duct is adapted to be closed by a hingedcover 48 whichv is urged toward its closed position by a spring 49.

As is best illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, the` selector valve 42comprises a valve body 58 detachably secured to the blower housing 28 bymeans of an extending foot portion l having a suitable opening thereinto accommodate the body of the spray nozzle 34. The. spray nozzle isprovided with a collar 52 which is urged into contact with the footportion of the selector valve body holding it securely against theblower housing 29. The spray nozzle and the valve body are held againstthe blower housing by a set screw 53 having threaded engagement with aU-shaped bracket 54 pivotally connected as at 55 to the blower housing.This connection permits the selector valve and the nozzle to be removedfrom the blower housing for inspection and is easily handled by anoperator wearing heavy mittens. The valve body 50 is provided with atapered bore 56 for the reception of a hollow valve plug 51 forming acup-like chamber 58 therein. The valve plug is connected by means of apin 59 with a stem portion 68 extending through a suitable openingprovided in a bonnet 6 I, closing the open end of the bore 56. At itsextending end, a handle 62 is rigidly secured as by a cap screw'68 tothe stem portion. A suitable packing member indicated at 64 is providedto prevent leakage of fuel about the valve stem. A spring 65 is disposedabout the stem and is interposed between a thrust washer 66 bearingagainst the packing 64 and a cupped retainer 61. The retainer 61 bearsagainst a disc 68 adapted for limited sliding movement in the bore 56but which is held against rotation by an extending ear 69 which isreceived in a drilled recess provided in the valve body. A plurality ofrecesses 1i are provided in the disc for the reception of the extendingends of the pin 59 which cooperate with the spring loaded disc to permitthe operator to identify by feel the various positions of the valveplug. A' plate 12 is provided on the valve body adjacent the handle 82and may be marked with suitable reference indicia to ald the operator inthe selection of the various valve positions. The valve plug is providedwith spaced ports 13 and 14 providing communication with the chamber 58.The ports are located so that when the valve plug is positioned topermit fuel from the pipe 4| to enter the chamber 58 through port 13,port 14 will register with a passage provided in the valve body. Thepassage 15 communicates with a passage 16 provided in the spray nozzlewhich terminates in a suitable spray orifice (not shown) for sprayingfuel into the burner tube 35. To fill the igniter 44,

the valve plug is turned to a position in which the port I4 communicateswith the pipe 48 and port 18 registers with a vent passage 11 providedin-the valve body which is open tothe atmosphere.

With the valve plug in this position, the fuel within the cup-likechamber 58 is free to flow through the fuel line 48 to the igniter 44.Thus, the chamber 58 serves as a measuring cup to control the amount offuel supplied to the wick 45.

In operation, the heated air enters the shroud 21 from the. duct 28 andpasses upwardly around thestarting engine crankcase 22 and cylinderblock 23 as indicated 5y the arrows in Figs. 1 and 5. The .shroud isVprovided with an internal baille 19 to insure that a substantial portionof the heated air circulates about the cylinder block before passinginwardly around the extending end of the baille to the cylinder head.The baille is provided with a suitable opening to accommodate the inletand exhaust manifolds 25 and 25 of the starting engine and this openingis of sufficient size to permit the iiow of a part of the hot airupwardly around the inlet manifold. After circulating around thecylinder head, the hot air is exhausted from the shroud through suitableopenings which also accommodate the inlet manifold, the spark plugsshown at 80, and an opening adjacent the Diesel engine inlet manifoldI2. Thus by controlling the direction of flow of the exhausting air,preheating of the starting engine carburetor indicated at 8|, the sparkplugs, and the inlet manifold of the Diesel engine is accomplished.Provision is also made to heat the starting engine magneto 82 by meansof a bar 88, of a good heat conducting material, one end of whichextends into the shroud where it is heated bythe incoming hot air. Atits opposite end, the bar is in intimate contact with the magneto whichis heated by conduction. It is desirable to utilize conducted heatrather than hot air for preheating the magneto to eliminate thepossibility of condensation of the products of combustionon this part.

By directing a stream of hot air against the crankcase, cylinder block,and cylinder head, the

lubricating oil and engine coolant may be raised to a satisfactoryoperating temperature thus enabling starting in much less time thanwould otherwise be possible. In addition, by directing a substantialproportion of the exhausted hot gases against the inlet manifold of theDiesel engine, the temperature of the incoming air to the Diesel issubstantially increased, facilitating its starting.

We claim:

l. A preheater for an internal combustion engine comprising an airblower, driving means independent of the engine for the blower, meansfor heating the air from the blower, a single shroud substantiallyentirely enclosing the engine and duct means between the blower and theshroud.

2. A preheater for an internal combustion engine comprising an airblower, driving means independent of the engine for the blower, a singleshroud enclosing the engine, a duct from the blower to the shroud, meansfor heating the air from the blower and bailling means disposed withinthe shroud for directing the flow of heated` air about critical parts ofthe engine.

3. A preheater for an internal combustion engine comprising an airblower, driving means for the air blower, means for heating the air fromthe blower, shroud means enclosing parts of the engine, a duct providingcommunication be- 5 tween 4the air blower and the shroud, and a heatconducting element extending from the interior of the shroud to engineparts outside of the shroud to lpk'xgevent the formation of condensateson said pa 4. A preheater for an internal combustion engine comprisingan air blower, shroud means enclosing parts of the engine, duct meansproviding communication between the air blower and the shroud, a burnertube disposed within the duct means, and means for sprayingfuel into theburner tube.

5.' A preheater for an internal combustion engine comprising an airblower, driving means parts of the engine, duct means providingcommunication between the air blower and the shroud, and a burner tubedisposed within the duct means, a fuel system for heating the air in theduct comprising a fuel supply tank, a pump, driving means for the pump,a spray nozzle for spraying fuel into the burner tube, and an igniterhaving a wick extending into the burner tube for igniting the fueltherein.

.7. A preheater for an internal combustion engine comprising an airblower, driving means for the air blower, shroud means enclosing partsof the engine, duct means providing communicas tion between the airblower and the shroud, a burner tube disposed within the duct means, afuel supply tank, a pump, driving means for the pump,` a spray nozzlefor spraying fuel into the burner tube, a continuously burning wick forigniting the fuel in the burner tube, and a selector valvefadapted todirect fuel from the pump selectivelyfto the wick and the spray nozzle.

8. A preheai'er for an internal combustion engine. comprising an airblower, driving means for the air blower, shroud means enclosing partsof the engine, duct means providing communication 'between the airblower and the shroud, a burner tube disposed within the duct means, afuel supply tank, a pump, driving means for the pump','a spray nozzlefor spraying fuel into the burner tube, a continuously burning wick forigniting the fuel in the burner tube, a selector.

valveadapted to direct fuel from the pump selectively to the spraynozzle and to the wick, and means to limit the quantity of fuel suppliedto the wick upon any single operation of the selector valve.

JOHN R. GARDNER. ERNEST W. LANDEN. FRANK MIDDLE-TON. CARL H. PAUL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of recordi in the l illeof this patent:

, UNITED STATES PATENTS Number l rName Date 1,357,598 Thompson Nov. 2,1920 1,460,668 Good July 3, 1923 1,927,554 McCleery Sept. 19, 19332,286,854 Holthouse e June 16, 1942 2,405,145 Holthouse Aug. 6, 1946

